Mo Kanjilal, Sales Director at Kiss The Fish
Everyone has read about and heard about the use of sports psychology and sports metaphors for your sales team, right? What about thinking of them differently, how about a superstar team of actors delivering their best performances for your business? The sales team is the face of your company and how they behave and perform will have a huge impact on your business performance.
- Identify the superstar
Your star performer will usually identify themselves, with knockout sales performances, celebrating deals closing regularly, and rave reviews from customers and colleagues about how brilliant they are. If this person is not immediately obvious in your team, then think about using tools such as psychometric profiling to add some science to your assessments and spend time with the team to see who is performing well when they are in front of prospects and customers.
- Award the breakout stars
Most salespeople are by their very nature quite competitive and use that inherent competitiveness to enhance their performances. If you don’t already have this in place, introduce monthly, quarterly, or annual awards, with categories for your team to shine. It’s not just about the biggest deal closed, who showed tenacity and persistence to close a complex deal? Who showed creativity in their proposal? And who closed their deal with knockout-star quality performance to a board of Directors at their prospect? Reward these people, and they will bask in the glory and inspire the rest of the team.
- Deliver Oscar-winning pitches
Talking of the pitch, how often have you got your sales team together to show you how they present to companies? Have they had training in some of the different aspects of a presentation? Are they using creativity, strong messaging, and clear language in how they present? It’s always good practice to get your team together and let them present to each other so you can all work together on how to develop those award-winning pitches.
- Develop your choreography and casting
Think about the sequence of your sales process. Has your team got clarity on the choreography of events, that perfect sequence to close a deal? Are they thinking about timings? Are they thinking about the cast of people they need to help them close? Your star performers should be asking key people in your organization at crucial times during the sales process to help them close those deals.
- Publish rave reviews
And when your team of superstars achieves success and closes those deals, make sure they get the rave reviews they are craving. How are you celebrating their success? Are you ringing a bell? Announcing by email? Posting on social media? Make sure your team is getting their rave reviews, and make sure other teams who have contributed to the win get their thanks too. It’s not just the actors who win Oscars, it’s the team of production, lighting, casting, music, and so many other categories. In the same way, it’s a team that delivers a winning deal, so make sure all your superstars, rising stars, and extras get the publicity they deserve.
Ready for your next Oscar-winning business performance? If you want help from a proven team of high-caliber Sales Directors, contact us!
